That's the view of many on Wall Street, who argue that with the stock market falling, unemployment rising and the economy flirting with a recession, Bernanke should be dealing with the situation more aggressively than he has so far.

Their quarrel is partly with the Fed's reluctance to cut interest rates even more than it already has. But mostly those on Wall Street object to what they describe as the Fed's failure to accompany each cut with a tough, blunt statement on the dangers ahead – embracing language that implicitly promises more interest rate cuts, and soon, to right the economy.

They also complain that Bernanke, a former Princeton University economics professor bent on building consensus among the Fed's policy-makers, appears reluctant to strong-arm his colleagues at the Federal Reserve the way his predecessors Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker often did.

“Bernanke should be making stronger statements and then backing them up with decisive easing,” said Jan Hatzius, chief domestic economist for Goldman Sachs, who argues that the short-term benchmark interest rate that the Fed controls should be cut to 3 percent by year's end. The rate is 4.25 percent, down a full percentage point since mid-September.

“Personally, I think we should be at 3 percent right now,” said James Glassman, a senior economist at JPMorgan Chase. “You ask anyone on Wall Street, 'If Bernanke cuts to 1 percent or 2 percent or 3 percent, would that fix the problem?' Most people would tell you that would certainly start the healing.”

Despite the criticism from Wall Street, which has a vested interest in lower rates, Bernanke has plenty of defenders, particularly among academic economists, who say he is exceptionally qualified for the task of steering the nation's monetary policy.

“He has spent his entire career studying financial market disruptions and economic disturbances, and no one has a better understanding of these phenomena than he does,” said Mark Gertler, a New York University economist.

As a group, his fellow economists favor Bernanke's attempts to be more informative about the Fed's deliberations and to reflect diverging viewpoints in the statements and the rate cuts.

“I think personally that the rate cuts have been just about right,” said John Taylor, a Stanford University economist who served as a top Treasury official in the early years of the current Bush administration.

Still, a growing number of academic economists are concerned that the economy will not respond to lower interest rates. They note that the Fed, apart from lowering rates, has also made money available on easy terms to banks and to other lending institutions.

But despite the easier terms, lenders and borrowers appear reluctant to act. The Fed's rate cuts have failed, at least so far, to lift borrowing and spending by as much as in the past.

“People have more debt than they can afford to pay and they gambled on house prices going up forever,” said Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University economist and a Nobel laureate. “There is no way that Fed policies can undo these harsh realities. Bernanke needs to say to Congress, "We have reached the limits of what responsible monetary policy can do.'”

No matter what the Fed does, it may not be able to prevent a recession. That is one reason a number of experts, including Stiglitz, are also calling for fiscal stimulus in the form of tax rebates for low-income families, or extended unemployment insurance or other subsidies to help counter the downward pressures on consumer spending.

Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said, “Among economists, a vigorous debate has arisen just over the past few weeks about whether fiscal stimulus would be beneficial, and if so, what kind.”

And then there is self-interest. Wall Street traders and investment bankers are counting on drastic rate cuts to help make stock prices rise, said Albert Wojnilower, a consultant to Craig Drill Capital, a hedge fund. Rising stock prices, in turn, help lift year-end bonuses, which were relatively small last year.

“It is easier for people on Wall Street to cloak their personal desires in a national concern,” Wojnilower said.